Police are responding faster to 111 calls in urban areas and more than half of priority-one incidents are now reached within 10 minutes.
Figures obtained by the New Zealand Herald show police responded to 61 percent of calls within 10 minutes of them being made.
Nationally, figures show police response times are getting faster, with 90 percent of calls in 2011 responded to within 26 minutes 51 seconds, compared to 28 minutes 34 seconds in 2008 and 2009.
However, in some urban areas, response times aren't so quick.
In Auckland City, the response time in 2011 was within 31 minutes 17 seconds, while in Canterbury the response time was within 28 minutes 6 seconds.
In rural areas, police responded to 84 percent of priority-one incidents within 30 minutes, while 90 percent of 111 calls were responded to within 39 minutes 44 seconds.
Priority-one events are deemed urgent and require an immediate police response.
Such events include robberies, homicides and assaults, as well as incidents that need an emergency response like earthquakes, flooding and other weather-related events.
Last year, New Zealand's three police communications centres received 1.7 million calls, including 700,000 emergency calls.
NZN